Good gracious...

...it's been way too long! I can't believe I haven't updated. So let's get right down to it, ok?

Halloween Jack-o-Lantern needle accessory set: Done.

By far, my favorite thing I have ever stitched.

Mira, The Rain Queen: Done.

High School: Done

Burned my arm: Ouch.

Pillowcases: Done.

Finally.

They were "almost done" for about three months.

I haven't worked on the dragon since March, so nothing to show there. I'm working full time and am fairly exhausted all the time. But, it's all good. 

The George Washington project is moving right along. 95 panels out of 112 have been shipped out.  We are currently have a gridding challenge in the group and my plans for tonight and tomorrow are to add some rows to my gridding on my fabric.

Now I can finish the set!!

I am so crazy excited that my last piece of 32ct carrot linen came in to day so I can now finish the "Bootiful Needle Set."  Working on the other pieces in this set has, so far, been one of my most enjoyable stitching projects.  Learning to make the buttonhole corner stitches that end up being the ruffle was so fun!  The last piece, the needle book, has more of them than the other two pieces did, so I'm really excited to get going on them!

I also got some more work done on the Quidditch Pitch over the weekend.  I'm excited to get some progress in on my Harry Potter themed pillow set, so when I pulled this out to take the picture for my previous post, I didn't want to put it away.  I finished the Slytherin seating tower and also filled in the Ravenclaw one with one color of blue that I didn't have when I started the pattern.  Now only my personal fave - the Hufflepuff tower to go.  Then it will have a Golden Snitch flying over the goals that I'm going to stitch in metallic thread. It also made the perfect on-the-go project one day when I was in the car since it's so small and portable.  

I've stitched just a tiny bit on the dragon as well, but I'll wait until I have more done before sharing another picture of it.

Current WIP updates

Just a little update for you.  :0)

I finished the stitching on my Mira, The Rain Queen.  All she needs now are beads.  I have all the bead packs but one which is currently not available.  Hopefully it will be back in stock soon.

Here she is the last time you saw her:

And here she is now:

All of that 1 over 1 skin DONE!  She has been a labor of love.  I must admit, not the most enjoyable thing I've ever stitched.  But it's a gift for my daughter, so I carry on.

I've gotten just a smidge more done on the dragon since you last saw him like this:

And here he is now:

I have to say that when I do have the time to work on him, he works up very quickly.

Not much else to show as far as progress.  I have ordered my *last* piece of carrot linen to finish off the pumpkin needle accessory set.

I still have finishing to do on the scissor fob and the last stitched piece will be the needle book.  So I'm very excited for that to arrive and then get to start on it.  I saved the needle book for last because I knew it would be my favorite piece of the set.

I have several things I want to start, but for many of them I need to order fabric.  The most recent is this Honeyduke's pattern I purchased off of Etsy.  I have a plan to do a whole set of Harry Potter pillows and this will be one of them.

I went fabric shopping to see if I could find a good finishing fabric for the pillow that would go with the candy theme.  I found this one, I think it's pretty good but I'm still going to keep my eyes open in case I find something better.

I also found a good finishing fabric for the Quidditch Pitch pattern that I started last year.  Here is the pattern:

And here is how far I have gotten ~ it hasn't been stitched on in a while.  I purposely used a dark gray fabric to mimic the weather they so often have while playing Quidditch in the stories.

I found the perfect stormy gray fabric for finishing this into a pillow.

I have some other Harry Potter patterns to add into this pillow collection, two of which will be my own patterns that I've come up with myself.  More on those later.  :0)

So that's where I am at the moment.  Still working away on my regular wips and interjecting a bit of work on side wips here and there when I feel like it.

Happy Stitching everyone!!

Let's catch up

Hi everyone!  Sorry I haven't been around, but I've started working again for the first time in 11 years.  My hours have been crazy and my energy has been...well, there's just not much of it right now.  

But let's catch up!  :0)

First off, I never shared pictures from my Christmas exchange with my friend.  We had decided to do a pattern, needleminder, and stitched bookmark exchange with each other.  This was really great.  It was fun and really enjoyed both stitching her bookmark and receiving the one she gave me.  It made me want to do more of them.  :0)

So here is what she got me...

This is The Village by Kathy Barrick and it was on my wishlist.  The other pattern is part 4 of the Sing a Sampler series from Silver Creek Samplers.  She had purchased me parts 1-3 and gave them to me in October.  At the time part 4 was on back order.  So now I have the whole thing.  :0)

Here's a close up of the needleminder she got me.  She knows how big of a Harry Potter fan I am, so this is perfect for me.  It's been getting a lot of use.

And here is the bookmark she stitched me.  This has been getting a lot of use too.  The funny thing is, without even knowing what the other was stitching, she stitched me one that starts the story...

And I stitched her one that ends it...

Is that too cute or what, lol?

Next, moving on to what I've been stitching.  I did have a finish in the very last days of 2016.  I finished Doxology by My Big Toe Designs.

I love this mix of fabric and pattern.  The fabric is Fathoms Below by Hand Dyed by Stephanie.

For January, all I've worked on is the big dragon and a pillowcase pair. I did meet one of my big goals for the dragon. I finished one of the wings.

And with my son holding it for size scale...

I'm really enjoying this piece more than I thought I would.  It started out I was only doing it because my son asked for it.  Dragons are his thing, not generally mine.  But this has been such an enjoyable stitch, I'm giving serious thought to doing the other in the series, the Fire Dragon.

I've also worked on my current pillowcase pair ~

Hopefully I'll have these done soon.

That's it really.  I'm squeezing in just a bit of reading here and there, but other than that, it's pretty much work, sleep, repeat these days.  But hopefully by my next update, I'll have even more of that dragon coming to life to share with you.

Happy stitching everyone!